Two workers trapped after coal mine collapse in Turkey’s Zonguldak

ZONGULDAK

Two workers are trapped after a coal mine collapsed in the Black Sea province of Zonguldak on May 30, Doğan News Agency has reported.

The collapse occurred in a mine run by a private firm in Zonguldak’s Kilimli district at 8:30 p.m. on May 30. 

Tayfun Keskin, 34, and Volkan Köroğlu, 32, were trapped after the mine’s roof collapsed 600 meters away from the mine’s entrance. 

An 11-person rescue crew and ambulances have been dispatched to the scene and rescue work is ongoing.

The crew stated that the trapped mine workers were wearing GPS chipped helmets but they were not able to detect their location as the collapse was blocking signals. 

Workers arriving at the scene from the other mines have also provided support for rescue works. Relatives of the trapped mine workers are waiting hopefully for news in front of the entrance of the mine.

Accidents have beset Turkey’s mining industry in recent years, with 301 coal miners killed in Soma in May 2014, in the country’s worst ever mining disaster.  

In October 2014, 18 died in a flood at a coal mine in Ermenek in the Central Anatolian province of Karaman.

In November 2016, 16 workers were killed in a copper mine landslide in the Şirvan district of the southeastern province of Siirt.